This invention relates generally to the field of food heating and sterilization devices and relates more particularly to a sterile, ohmic heating packet including a hermetic electrical connection between the inside of the packet and the outside of the packet.
As emerging aerospace technologies allow human beings to travel further into outer space for longer periods of time, greater quantities of provisions, such as food and beverage items, must be transported into space to provide astronauts with adequate sustenance for long-duration missions. It is therefore critical that such food and beverage items be compact and lightweight. It is also critical that such food and beverage items be stored in a manner that is resistant to spillage and contamination. Given the constrained availability of electrical power on space missions, it is also important that food and beverage items that are to be consumed aboard spacecraft can be heated and sterilized in an energy efficient manner.
Food quality is also a primary consideration in situations where provisions must be rationed and the availability of fresh food is limited or nonexistent. Typically, packaged foods that are sterilized using conventional, external hot media need to be heated for long periods of time to ensure that the slowest heating regions within the package achieve sterility. This results in significant nutritional and quality loss in the overheated portions of the food product. If heating could be made more uniform, sterilization process times could be significantly reduced, resulting in far superior product quality.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a lightweight, hermetically sealed food and beverage container that facilitates heating and sterilization of its contents in a convenient manner that requires relatively little energy. It would further be advantageous to provide such a container that facilitates highly uniform heating of its contents. It would further be advantageous to provide such a container that can be reused following food consumption to contain and sterilize additional food product or waste materials that are otherwise difficult or impossible to process.